Destinations® - Teaching materials AS2 Job study, occupational report, labour market essay The job study, occupational report or labour market essay is a feature of many careers education courses. Here we include a selection of ideas to help you create an assignment. These ideas are not exhaustive and you should consider how far any suggestions fit into your own course. Basic assignment instructions Using one of the essay/job study/report titles provided, write a 1000 word/ 2000 word study. Your report must include: 1. Reference to at least three sources of information relevant to the scope of your study 2. An evaluation of your three main sources, giving their strengths and weaknesses as sources for your report 3. A full bibliography using the [Harvard] reference system Provide your students with as many or as few titles as you wish from the list below. You may want to only give them one title, or you may want to provide two or three to allow them some choice and control over their work. We have included explanatory notes for each title which you may wish to include, adapt or omit. Title 1 Create a report which outlines the main duties and responsibilities of an occupation. Include a consideration of the entry requirements, training needs and promotional prospects. Compare the information you present with your own interests, abilities and past experiences and explain whether you might be interested in this occupational area and why. (You may conclude that you do not want to enter this area; if so then explore in your study the reasons for this). Note: this type of report may appeal to you if you want to get to know a job in detail, perhaps because you are considering it as a future career. Example report: A study of the entry requirements, training needs and promotional prospects of primary school teaching, comparing this information with the writer’s interests, abilities and past experiences, and explaining why the writer is (not) interested in this occupational area. Title 2 Examine the work conditions and culture of an occupational area (eg. accountancy, banking, teaching, etc). Explore one of the following two options: To what extent is there variation in job roles within this occupational area? ©University of Reading 2016 Destinations® - Teaching materials To what extent is there variation in work cultures between employers in this occupational area? Note: This report might appeal to anyone with an interest in a broad occupational area, and will help you to get an in-depth understanding of available roles or employers. This type of report might make use of interviews of employees, or company literature to examine how the company image and culture relate to the work it undertakes. Example report: An examination of the work conditions and culture of law, including a comparison of three different areas of law within a corporate firm. Example report: An examination of the work conditions and culture of advertising, examining the variation in work cultures between three different employers. Title 3 Give an account of the evolution of an occupation, exploring how it has changed in the past. (You may set your own timescales according to your choice of job or occupation.) Examine how experts think the occupational area will evolve in the next few years. Do you agree with their predictions? Note: This approach may help you to think about what how you might be working in a few years’ time if you enter this occupational area, and to know what expectations employers have for the near future. Some employers may be actively seeking employees in line with future trends. Example report: An account of the evolution of newspaper journalism in the last ten years and an examination of how experts think the area will evolve in the next ten years. Title 4 Investigate an occupational area in depth. Why does the occupation exist? Structure your report using a PEST analysis: looking at the Political, Economic, Social and Technological reasons for the existence of this occupation. If you are not familiar with the acronym PEST, here are two websites which can help you: http://www.netmba.com/strategy/pest/ http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/theory/theory.php?tID=166 Note: A job study in this area will be useful for anyone who wants to deepen their knowledge of an occupation beyond basic information on roles, responsibilities and recruitment. If you decide to enter the occupational area of your study, you may find that this knowledge helps you to understand the recruitment process and will also allow you to speak knowledgeably in an interview about the occupation and your interest in it. Example report: An in-depth investigation into the role of NHS manager, using a PEST analysis to examine the reasons why this occupation exists. Frequently Asked Questions for students These may be used as FAQs, or added as notes to your assignment instructions. The instructions given here are ideas only and will need to be tailored to your situation. For example, you may wish to limit the types of sources that students use, or to prescribe the format of the assignment. ©University of Reading 2016 Destinations® - Teaching materials 1. What counts as a ‘source’? A wide variety of materials can count as one of your sources. This material need not always be textual – it could also be an interview, your personal account of work experience or work shadowing, or an analysis of photos or publicity material. Here are some examples of sources: A company website An interview with an employee or employer An advert for a graduate training programme Visual marketing material (eg. photos, logos) Company publications (eg. annual report) A visit to a company stand at a careers fair A newspaper article An article on a careers website (eg. Prospects job profiles) Your own reflections on work experience or work shadowing Many more materials can count as a source – this is not an exhaustive list. If you are in any doubt, then justify your choice in your study. As long as you justify your choice, evaluate its use in the context of your report, and it is relevant to the approach you take, then it is valid. 2. What do you mean by ‘evaluating your sources’? All sources – whether they are adverts, personal experiences or newspaper articles – have been written for an audience, with an aim in mind. When we ask you to evaluate a source, we want you to think about the way in which this information is presented, and what the advantages and drawbacks are. Here are two examples: An interview with a friend about a job they are doing will have advantages because you may get information that would not be available through official sources. You might get personal insights and more detail than normal. However, the limitation to this source is that your friend can only tell you their own experience – and that experience may be different from someone else’s. You may need to check the facts they give to you against official sources, or consider whether they have a limited viewpoint. Conversely, a company website may be an excellent source of public information. It should give you not only a full picture of the company’s activities, but may also present visual images and detailed information about finances, future plans and ideals. However, the limitation of such a site is that it projects the public image the company wishes to have – this may not be quite the same as the reality. A job described as ‘fun’ or ‘intellectually challenging’ on a company website may, in reality, not be equally fun or challenging for all its employees. 3. How do I reference my sources properly? You should use the [insert name here, eg. Harvard] system to reference the sources you use in your job study. If the conventions given do not cover the material you are using, then you should give sufficient detail to enable the reader to know where your material came from. ©University of Reading 2016 Destinations® - Teaching materials Key categories to include are author, publisher, URL and date accessed for websites, and author/interviewee and date for newspapers and interviews. [insert reference here to conventions used by your students. Perhaps the most common referencing system is the Harvard system, which is explained clearly on the Anglia Ruskin University Website: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm.] 4. What format should my study be in? You may either write your job study in essay style, or as a report with subheadings and sections. The most important thing is to have consistent layout throughout. [You may wish to be more prescriptive here, using your own conventions or conventions related to the students’ degree course.] Reading list You will need to compile your own reading list for students, based on texts available at your institution. We make some suggestions here: Websites Destinations® Careers and Employers topic is a good starting point for this assignment. Students may also find useful the subject specific material on Destinations® (available from December 2007). Prospects http://www.prospects.ac.uk Doctor Job http://doctorjob.com Students might also be encouraged to look at the websites of specific employers and/or websites linked to a profession or occupational area: eg. professional bodies, chartered institutes, etc. Prospects has links to some of these via the occupational profiles. Books Bradley, H., Erickson, M., Stephenson, C., Williams, S. (2000). Myths at work. Cambridge: Polity Press. Particularly useful for recent trends in workplace culture, this book includes chapters on globalization, non-standard employment, skills, technology and science, and women in the workplace. Arnold, J. Cooper, C.L., Robertson, I.T. (1998). Work psychology: understanding human behaviour in the workplace. Third edition. London: Financial Times Management. Newspapers The broadsheet newspapers all print articles which may be relevant to this type of study. Key places for students to look at include the following: The Financial Times http://www.ft.com Guardian –‘Work’, ‘Business’ and ‘Graduate’ http://www.guardian.co.uk Independent – ‘Business’ and ‘Graduate Options’ http://www.independent.co.uk The Telegraph – ‘Money and Jobs’ and ‘Business’ http://www.telegraph.co.uk ©University of Reading 2016 Destinations® - Teaching materials The Times – ‘Business’ and ‘Career and Jobs’ http://www.timesonline.co.uk Additional ideas for teachers If you have good alumni links you might consider asking if your alumni would be willing to be interviewed by students completing this assignment. Details of alumni could be posted on a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with instructions about how many students the individual is willing to be contacted by (eg. maximum two interviews per year). Students might be encouraged to interview by phone, email or messenger as well as in person. You may need to create a system to ensure that the alumnus is not contacted by too many students! If you want to put a strong networking emphasis on this assignment then you might make it essential for students to include an interview they conduct as one of their three sources. Students thinking of doing further study might want to look into research or academic work as an occupational area; alternatively you might make explicit in your instructions that further study can be investigated for any of the example questions. This assignment pairs well with the ‘researching your career’ exercise included in the assignments in staff resources, which offers a step-by-step guide to evaluation of sources. If students undertake the research exercise before this assignment they should be confident in thinking about evaluating their sources and will have good awareness of a range of sources available to them. This assignment, properly completed, uses a range of research skills which are similar to those used in degree courses. If you have a cohort from a specific degree course, you might consider how to tailor this assignment to integrate with the practices of the degree programme eg. using the same referencing system, layout, and linking to any degree course materials where appropriate. For example, Sociology students might link to books on the sociology of work, Business Studies students to business textbooks, or Modern Languages students might be permitted to include sources in another language or to compare occupations in two countries. ©University of Reading 2016 Destinations® - Teaching materials Marking criteria We propose here one set of criteria for marking this assignment. When adapting them you need to take into account practices in your own university and the emphasis you want to place upon different aspects of the exercise. The criteria below are weighted equally, thus giving 50% of the marks to use of information and argument, 25% to evaluation of sources, and 25% to presentation, referencing and layout. You may wish to add criteria which refer more specifically to the titles you use with students. Student Excellent selection and synthesis of relevant occupational information Persuasive,interesting response, makes use of relevant critical analysis or problematisation of concepts Perceptive and balanced evaluation of sources used Consistent referencing and layout, excellent spelling and grammar Programme 1st 2.1 2.2 3 <H F 7-10 6-6.9 5-5.9 4-4.9 3.53.9 0-3.4 Comments Mark ©University of Reading 2016 Marked by Limited or poor information, or irrelevant selection of information Unconvincing response, limited critical analysis or uncritical presentation of information Limited or no evaluation of sources, or evaluation that fails to account for origin of information No or inconsistent referencing, poor layout, poor grammar and spelling